BEWC launch in September - a follow up to the 1st Black European Women’s Congress in Vienna last year

A lot has been going on since we met in Vienna last year.

Each woman was charged with doing whatever she could in her country. For my part I promised to spread the word. My efforts can be found here.

Leah in Sweden has organized a group of sisters and held meetings to draft proposals from the Black Woman in Sweden’s point of view. She is happy to report that Sweden seems to be ahead of the curve in promoting equal rights and access to Black Women.

The first strategic meeting of BEWNET (Black European Women’s Network)took place in Vienna from 13-14 March 2008. One of the outcomes was the unanimous decision by all present at the strategic meeting to change the name of our network from Black European Women’s Network to “Black European Women’s Council” for strategic reasons.

The next steps shall be to register BEWC as an international association under the Belgian Law.

September 9th 2008 is the official launching of BEWC in the European Parliament in Brussels. I definitely plan to be at this historical event.

For more information contact AFRA the addresses. They intend to send out the invitations by mid June.

Right Or Wrong We Need Support

Fifteen police officers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were captured on video beating the shit out of three black men pulled out of a car after a traffic stop on Monday night. The fifteen police officers have been removed from street duty. The beating looked similar to some kind of gang activity where the victim is overwhelmed by multiple gang members waylaying in on his or her ass. The three black men have been charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment, according to court officials. But that really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the police officers are right or wrong. People throughout the community will come from far and wide to defend the actions of a little street justice from this badge wearing posse.

On Wednesday, Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter made the statement, “At a glance it does appear to be a bit beyond the pale…Officers are not allowed to operate outside of the law…We are not going to prejudge the situation based on the video…We all saw the video, but none of us was there.”

No doubt there will be some claim of some kind of investigation. These police will simply say that they were in fear of their life and were trying to defend themselves. The police will claim that these suspects were trying to break the officer’s feet when the officers were kicking the suspects in the head as they were lying face down on the ground. The police will claim that they had to beat the suspects because the suspects didn’t respond to police commands fast enough. They will say that they were suffering from some derivative of contagious shooting called contagious beating the shit out of somebody or contagious smack down. They will go before a judge and the esteemed Honor will say something totally unbelievable but perfectly legal like there isn’t enough evidence here to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the suspects’ civil rights were violated while cops were kicking their ass. The dominant community will support their police far beyond any shadow of a reasonable doubt whether they were right or wrong.

In the individual dealings with the black community the support the dominant community gives its representatives is overwhelming. Had this beating not been caught by the WTXF-TV helicopter that just so happened to be in the vicinity, the suspects would have showed up at the police station bloodied and battered and in need of immediate medical attention, the police would have simply said that the suspects fell as they were getting out of the squad car. The infamous police code of silence and blind support for fellow officers would not require any investigation to the contrary.

But now that there is a video made public, reluctantly, an investigation must ensue. Witnesses will be collected and if their testimony will be damaging to the police officers it will be dismissed because the police will be assumed to have more integrity than the black suspects. Few people from the dominant community will contest such an assumption. Most people will support that assumption even though they would never tolerate it being applied to themselves. If these people don’t stand behind each other, the dominant community would have a great deal to lose.

The dominant community will support their own. A radio host, fired for demeaning and humiliating black women, will be supported to the point that, not only does he get his job back, he will get a ten million dollar settlement for his troubles. Boot camp guards caught on camera murdering a black teenager too exhausted to continue his calisthenics are acquitted of murder. Police who kill a black man on his way to his wedding are acquitted of any wrong doing. Senators running for reelection will point to a black man in the audience and tell the crowd to say hello to macaca, a racially derogatory term, and people still voted for him. A local district attorney charge black high school students of second degree attempted murder for fighting with white high school students who aren’t charged with anything. When the district attorney is investigated by federal agents, there isn’t enough evidence to warrant charges. A comedian stands on stage and uses numerous racial epithets against black people in the audience and video sales of the television show he appeared in skyrocket over the following week. And the number of racist who consistently make blatant derogatory remarks against the black community reads like a who’s who in network news.

If only the black community could garner such support from our own. When the radio host made his remarks about black women, half the black community was pointing the finger at the other half of the black community. Somehow, we had brought this upon ourselves by allowing gangsta rap music thrive in the black community. The fact that gangsta rap is a product of a music industry ultimately controlled by the dominant community and the fact that the white community is responsible for seventy percent of gangsta rap purchases never registers to half of the black community. If black people would not tolerate our women being degraded through gangsta rap music maybe white radio hosts wouldn’t think it was acceptable to degrade black women.

Black comedians stand in front of white people and deride poor blacks for the condition of the black community. Black celebrities advocate the abandonment of the black community in order to truly feel free. Black celebrities will do their best to market themselves as a single person rainbow coalition with every ethnicity in the spectrum in their family lineage with their African ancestry pulling up the rear. Famous black men advertise the fact that they don’t date black women. Famous black women return the favor and eschew dating black men. Black entrepreneurs want to hire white people as their sales force and keep their black employees in supporting roles.

When a black preacher has the audacity to say that the dominant community has played a significant role in keeping the black community in a condition of perpetual substandard existence, the black community will question his motives and accuse him of trying to sabotage another black man’s bid for the white house. We want to hush the man with the courage to be vocal in his call for the recognition of our condition. White people won’t want to hear that shit. If that fool doesn’t keep quiet the black community will lose any hope of putting one of our own in the white house.

And? A single black man in the white house isn’t going to change the conditions of the black community if we have to get him there under some subterfuge that everything is hunky dory. Equality and fairness isn’t going to trickle down through the public simply because we have a black president. Illinois had its first black Senator in forever and has conditions in Illinois change for its black population? It may be true that there have been some improvements but the racial status quo remains squarely intact.

The black community has produced our share of judges, police, doctors, legislators, lawyers, philosophers, historians, explorers, engineers, actors, singers, athletes, scientist, teachers, entrepreneurs, dreamers, bureaucrats, inventors, poets, entertainers, authors, administrators, astronomers, astrologers, astronauts, mathematicians, metallurgist, farmers, marketers, and any and every profession you can think of. What will be one more? What will change for the black community if one of our own was to become president? If the only black man that sits on the Supreme Court is any indication, it won’t mean a thing if that black person does not have a full appreciation of what it means to support the black community.

Like many people, I believe it will be a significant achievement when a black person becomes President of the United States. But I’m not ready to sacrifice black people who speak the truth about racial disparity in order to achieve that goal. I support the black man or woman who wants to be president. I support them with all of my heart. But more importantly, I will support the black community. And that includes the black person who has the courage to stand up and says that there is something wrong with this country that tolerates so much racial inequality.

The Soul of Barack Obama: Part 1

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Mark 8:36.

Barack Obama has sold his soul. Okay… let me be more specific… he has sold the “Black” part of his soul in his bid to gain the presidency of the United States of America.

The Jeremiah Wright affair highlighted the quandary that faced Obama, if he really wanted to be president of the United States of America. American politics forces you to choose between two polar opposites, regardless of whether these opposing sides are real or perceived. Democrats vs. Republicans; Conservatives vs. Liberals; Right-wing vs. Left-wing; Blue States vs. Red States; North vs. South; Protectionism vs. Globalization; Rich vs. Poor; Tax cuts vs. Tax hikes; Religion vs. Secularism; Christian vs. Muslim; Gay vs. Straight; Young vs. Old; Urban vs. Rural; College Educated vs. Blue Collar; Male vs. Female; Black vs. White.

I believe that Obama was sincere in wanting to run a campaign that rose above these differences… to find common ground among the various parties… to build a coalition on common interests… to usher in a new kind of politics. Most importantly, Obama didn’t want his campaign to be about race. Especially his Race! He felt that he could pull this off because he… himself… is the product, the combination of polar opposites… on various levels. Africa and America. East and West. Islam and Christianity. College educated and Blue collar. Black and White. I commend him for his efforts. However “reality” came a knocking at his door… “reality” in the guise of politics… and he was asked to choose. 

In light of the history of America in regards to it’s citizens of African descent, it should come as no surprise that Obama was faced with this choice. It was simple. It was clear. “Are you a member of the Black community or are you an American?” ”Are you Black or are you White?” You cannot be both! Not in the American political arena. Certainly not if you want to be president of the United States of America.

So his relationship with the Trinity United Church of God and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright was utilized as the basis to question him on where he stood. Obama (and his handlers) were clairvoyant enough to anticipate that this would come. Obama had hoped that by withdrawing the invitation to Rev. Wright to perform the benediction at his presidential announcement on February 10th 2007,  that he could forestall the inevitable, or at least he could begin to lay the groundwork, if he had to disassociate himself from Rev. Wright. But to coin a phrase: “The best laid schemes of mice and men, go oft awry…” and the public (i.e. “white people and the media”) demanded an answer.  

Obama’s speech, entitled “A More Perfect Union”  in Philadelphia on March 18th, was targeted not to the African American community, but to reassure America, (i.e. “white” America) that he was one of them. That his associations with those in the Black community… especially those “Un-patriotic, Anti-American Negroes” who expose and dare question the validity and subjective morality of American domestic and foreign policy; especially those“Un-patriotic, Anti-American Negroes” who remind America of their history of racism and aggression against “people of colour” at home and throughout the world… which is manifested in the belief by some, whether real or perceived, that germ warfare has been utilized against African Americans… that these associations, no matter for how long or of what dynamics, these were not so entrenched nor important as his attachment to his beloved (”white”) America! And here’s the beauty of his end-game. He can make this choice without being seen as a sellout, traitor or a “House Negro” pandering to the “white” majority. He can be sincere in this claim to be one of them… not because he grew up in a “white” neighbourhood and has lifelong “white” friends and associates, and not because he dated “white” women in high school and/or college, and not because his children have “white” friends now and he and Michelle are so close with these families that they vacation together, and certainly not because he has gone around America and has had meaningful conversations with “white” people… no… no.. it’s much more basic than that. He can claim “to be at one with them” because he can honestly state that “he is one of them!”  Well at least “half” of him is.  He played the “race card” and appealed to their shared heritage… the “white” side of his soul!

So he began to answer their question and made the choice to sell the “Black” part of his soul to gain the world. This became evident when he compared the opinions expressed by Rev. Wright in regards to America’s historical and current treatment of “people of colour” at home and abroad, with those of his “lily white” grandmother who made racist statements (to him) in regards to Black men who passed by her on the street. This became evident when during his speech, he equated the frustration and anger Black people in America feel due to blatant and systemic racism which too often has deadly consequences, with the frustration and anger “white” people in America feel because they are no longer entitled and/or guaranteed the same degree of privilege which the colour of their skin afforded them in the not too distant past. 

So although (at that time) he claimed he could “no more disown him (Rev. Wright) than I can disown the black community”… nor… “no more disown him than I can my white grandmother”… he had in fact already made a political choice. He attempted to cloud it with doublespeak and equate “Black” America with “white” America and present it as just “America”… and the sale was made… and the masses bought into it… they hailed his speech as “the greatest thing since sliced bread, bell-bottoms and platform shoes!” … they anointed him as their Messiah who had come to lead them to that bi-racial paradise called America.       

To be continued… sooner rather than later….

God Damn The Black Community

“God helps those who help themselves!” – Benjamin Franklin

Reverend Jeremiah Wright is in the news again and is said to be a distraction to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, by far his most famous former parishioner. Reverend Wright has spent the last week or so giving his side of the story. Mr. Wright feels that he has been personally attacked and also feels that the institution of the black church has been attacked by the dominant American culture. He’s been referred to as a kook and described as trying to knee cap Mr. Obama’s presidential bid. Mr. Obama tried to minimize his relationship with his former pastor. But when that didn’t put the issue to rest, Mr. Wright conveniently comes back on the scene to give Mr. Obama a second chance to sever the relationship cleanly in the public’s eye.

The overwhelming majority of America never knew Mr. Wright prior to the networks airing of the infamous recording of Mr. Wright saying that god should be damning America instead of blessing America. People refer to Mr. Wright as a blatant racist although he never once said white people were the problem. Mr. Wright said black and white people are different with neither one being better than the other. But this is too racist a concept for most. White and black people are actually saying that Jeremiah Wright is the problem. No one of any prominence has given Mr. Wright any understanding or support, with the possible exception of Bill Moyers when he hosted Mr. Wright on his PBS show Bill Moyers Journal and allowed the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ to defend himself without adding fuel to the fire of controversy. Mr. Moyers doesn’t have a political agenda to push so it is no surprise that he isn’t condemning Mr. Wright the way that the typical network pundit would.

But nevertheless, for the most part, when it comes to the black community, Mr. Wright is standing alone. Other than Mr. Moyers, I have yet to see any high profile support. Where are the leaders of the black community? Where are the people who claim to the welfare of the black community a top priority? It is a given that white people would want take the five or ten minutes of Mr. Wright’s sermons that have captured America’s attention. When Mr. Wright says god should damn America white people take this personally for America is white America. America is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. America is the corporate environment where white people rule the upper management, white people make up the vast majority of middle workers, and black people make up the bottom rung of the corporate ladder in janitorial services and the mailroom. To say America is messing up is to say that white people are messing up since they are the ones in control of 98% of America’s institutions. And these corporate institutions are using their resources to pick Mr. Wright apart and make him an example of what happens when you bad mouth America.

And with an election coming, and with the chance that a black man could actually obtain the highest office in America’s land, America will push with all of its corrupt corporate capitalist might to find anything and emphasize anything to keep Mr. Obama from obtaining the title of President of the United States. It is truly understandable why the dominant community would work so hard to keep the status quo of white only from being broken. Black man might become president and try do something positive for the black community. White America just can’t take that chance. So I can understand why the Tucker Carlsons and Sean Hanitys and Pat Buchanans of the world to persecute Mr. Wright, and therefore Mr. Obama by association. These are the type of people who would be content to see the despair of the black community continue without end. But where are the people who say that they have a vested interest in the uplift of the black community?

Where are the people who are more likely to defend Mr. Wright? Barack Obama tried to distance himself from Mr. Wright without outright rejecting him and it nearly cost him his lead in the presidential nomination race. There is too much to lose. So regardless of what Mr. Obama says to the contrary it is relatively easy to see how his highly visible divorce from Mr. Wright can be considered politically advantageous. So it doesn’t take much of a brain to see that there will be no comfort there. Where are the other high profile blacks who sit in black churches on a weekly basis and can relate to what Mr. Wright says about being black in America? Are we in the black community are supposed to believe that Jeremiah Wright is a lone exception with a totally unique perspective of the relationship between America and what she has done for and what she has done to the black community? Are we to believe that no other black high profile black celebrity has any idea what he is referring to?

Certainly there must be a gangster rap artist who is aware of what Mr. Wright is saying. Rap artist are constantly depicting the despair of the black community. Certainly these artists must know about the disparity that Mr. Wright is talking about. How about the black actors who must appear in works of fiction without any, or a severely limited number, of black actors appearing as characters that provide positive role models for the black community? Certainly these artists know a little something about being black in America and how black people have to work harder and longer just to get their foot in the door. Where are the black people who work in the corporate environment that sees black people at the bottom and white people at the top? Where are the black police officers, lawyers, judges, bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, and other black professionals who see the inequality between the black community and its white counterpart?

No one else has a clue as to what is happening. No one is willing to come forward and add their voice to the outrage of inequality in the social conditions of this country. We are supposed to believe that so many black people are too afraid, too complacent, too oblivious, or black people want to assimilate so badly that they support, even encourage, the unfairness under some pretense such as the black community is not being subjugated and simply needs to lift itself out of its predicament by making the choice not to be in a disparaging predicament. Granted many black people fit into one of these categories. But I refuse to believe there isn’t a single high profile black professional or celebrity who doesn’t feel the same way Mr. Wright feels enough to say something about it.

Change doesn’t happen when a single person is the only dissenting voice. It is far too easy to dismiss a single voice as little more than a crackpot or a trouble maker. Change happens when a single voice is joined by another voice and those voices are joined by more voices until there are so many voices that they cannot be dismissed as an exception to the rule. Those voices become a force that must be reckoned with.

If America’s black community allows Jeremiah Wright to be relegated to crackpot status until humanity becomes just another part of oblivion then we truly deserve to be subjugated. We think it is so much more important to keep the hope alive that Barack Obama will be the first black person to gain the white house that we are willing to let the truths that Mr. Wright spoke of be labeled as little more than a single black man’s slander against our beloved country. We are willing to let a man who has the audacity to boldly speak on our behalf, to boldly speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf, to be publicly crucified by the dominant community. We choose to become complacent in the rejection of the man who says something troubling is afoot in the black community in order not to stoke the fears of the dominant community.

If the black community does not stand firmly behind Jeremiah Wright, if we do not stand up and say he is correct and he speaks on behalf of us, then everything the dominant community says about us is true. Even if we disagree with everything he said he believes he is speaking on behalf of the black community. We should not be so quick to abandon a black person simply because the white community finds him or her offensive. The white community rarely abandons its own simply because black people find him or her offensive. If we allow ourselves to submit to the establishment without so much as a peep then we choose to be victims. We make the collective choice to be subjugated. We choose not to use whatever means necessary to get ourselves out of our plight. We choose to turn our backs at the chance for a movement. We choose not to be unified for our own self interest. And if all of that is true, then we owe the dominant community a huge apology, for obviously the only power they have over us is the power we let them have. And we can forget all that smack about god damn America. What everybody should be saying from this point on is god damn the black community!

The State of (In)Visible Black Europe

Hat tip to Marion Douglas-Ungaro

Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 10:00 a.m.
U.S. Congress
Room B318 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Member of Congress and Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) http://www.csce.gov - CSCE Office: 234 Ford House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515. Tel: (202) 225-1901; fax: (202) 226-4199

The hearing will focus on the challenges and opportunities faced by the more than 5 million members of Europe’s Black population amidst reported increases in hate crimes and discrimination, anti-immigration and national identity debates, and growing security concerns. The impact of recently introduced anti-discrimination laws and diversity initiatives aimed at ensuring and protecting equal rights for a population many do not know exists will also be discussed. I hope that you will attend.

Invited participants include:

Boris Kodjoe, Afro-German Actor
Joe Frans, Vice Chair, United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent; former Swedish Parliamentarian Gary Younge, British columnist, The Guardian Newspaper Dr. Philomena Essed, Antioch University; The Netherlands Equal Treatment Commission Dr. Allison Blakely, Afro-European Author and Historian, Boston University Dr. Clarence Lusane, International Race Politics Author, American University

Here is the link to the unofficial transcript.

A Hero

I have been very busy lately with other priorities and commitments to be able to blog on a number of issues. Next week I should be able to get back into the mix… but until then… let me share this inspiring speech by a true hero of African heritage (click here). I will comment more on this issue soon… until then remember it is the truth that will set you free!

Peace.

 

 

 

No Justice For Sean Bell

Is it really a surprise to people in the black community that the three police officers on trial for the murder of Sean Bell were acquitted?  In New York, New York of all places?  Is this not the same city where police sodomized Abner Louima, a black man in their custody, and then tried to deny it?  Is this not the same town where Amidou Diallo, a black man walking home with a bag of groceries in his arms, was gunned down for pulling out his wallet to identify himself?  Was it not too far from here where John White was found guilty for shooting a drunk white teen while trying to defend his family and his home from a mob of white kids?  Do we really need another example of the contempt the dominant community has against people from the black community?

Did anyone really think that the family of Sean Bell would be able to attain some kind of justice when there was no justice for Martin Lee Anderson, the fourteen year old black boy, who was murdered on camera by seven boot camp guards while the boot camp nurse looked on and approved everything they did?  Did anybody think there would be justice for a black man when we watched the tape of several New Orleans, Louisiana’s finest beating sixty four year old Robert Davis to the ground for the crime of asking a police officer for information and making the comment about the police department’s unprofessional conduct?

We all watched with horror and with sick fascination the tape of a boot camp guard holding a baton against Martin Anderson’s throat, keeping him up as his body surrendered its last bit of strength and tried to slump to the ground, while the other guards beat him.  We watched the police in New Orleans initiate the attack against Mr. Davis, wrestle him to the ground as they yelled for him to put his arms behind his back as the law enforcers held his arms in front of him, we could hear Mr. Davis saying that he would if they would just let him.  And yet, the judges and juries will say that they watched these videos and concluded that the black victim was actually a perpetrator who could have prevented the entire ordeal simply by doing what they were told.  Why would we expect anything different here?

Why do we act surprised to hear about this latest acquittal?  Did anyone really expect anything different to happen?  A police officer can expect to lose his or her job for inconveniencing the mother of the mayor’s wife by giving the woman a speeding ticket, but a police officer that kills an innocent black man in a case of mistaken identity is untouchable.  One of the police officers shot at the car Mr. Bell and his friends were in thirty one times.  He had to reload his gun in order to keep shooting.  It didn’t mean a thing in the judge’s eyes.  It was all understandable.

The dominant community continues to hound Barack Obama for the divisive but true comments of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.  But are Mr. Wright’s comments more divisive than the actions of police officers that will shoot a black man, taking the time to stop and reload, thirty one times?  Are Mr. Wright’s comments somehow more divisive than a judge who will say that the testimonies from black witnesses are not credible because they have convictions?  These are the same judges that wouldn’t hesitate to come down on a black defendant with a prior conviction that confesses to a crime.  And then people have to wonder why people in the black community don’t bother to help the authorities solve crimes.

Many people in the black community continue to think that the best bet for our survival is to do our best to try and integrate, to live among the dominant society where people on a regular basis are acquitted of the crime of killing and abusing black people at any time for any reason.  In today’s socially charged atmosphere of racial disparity and discrimination it is a feat of the highest legal skill, experience, and knowledge to get a court to recognize discrimination in the business environment.  Now, the courts are making it just as difficult for a black person to get some kind of justice when we are gunned down when minding our own business.  We are convicted for trying to defend our homes from angry white drunks.  Our word means nothing in the court room.  But let one of us say goddamn America and black people are the ones being divisive.

People in the black community need to rethink our relationship with the dominant community.  The disparity between the two communities is getting wider and wider.  Police murder us in the streets and suffer no repercussions while black pastors are demonized for preaching about racial disparity in our communities.  Even when the most extreme forms of this discrimination is caught on tape it is dismissed as our fault because we didn’t prostrate ourselves in front of the cop fast enough or the police officer was having a bad day and had to release his frustrations on the black citizen or whatever.  We are in danger every time we come out in public from the very people sworn to protect the public.  The police and the courts are doing their best to protect the public from black people.

Art of Deceoption by Charlie Gibson & George Stephanoloulos

Art of Deception by Charlie Gibson & George Stephanopoulos

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

In prison, there are some good and honorable men who simply made a mistake in their lives. But then there are some of the vilest creatures on the planet locked up. Although God changed my life in prison, some of the meanest men in the world changed my attitude about sin. I was not one of them, had no desire to be one of them, and didn’t want them around me. If they asked me, I will tell them to their face that I could care less if they fell off the face of the earth. They were bad and were not about to change. And, I was as mad and as bad as they were.

So do not ask me about the death penalty. I have my own option based upon my personal experiences and what I learn from the scriptures. It’s not politics to me, because I saw men justifiably executed by their fellow inmates, and I would not even lift a finger to stop it. One man rapes another man, and the other man kills him. Justifiable death penalty, I say.

Now there is a question about who has the authority to speak on a subject, seeing that everybody has a butt hole for an option. If their idea stinks, it stinks. You cannot sell me.

Recently, the mass media got busted trying to brainwash the public. ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos tried to pull the wool over the public’s eye in the presidential debate, and then tried to sell the American public on the idea that presidential candidate Barack Obama was crying because of “tough questions”.

Yeah, riiiiight!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Garbage-in, Garbage-out, Gibson puts the garbage-in and George Stephanopoulos takes the garbage out… like two trash men.

Men in prison may study the art of deception, but ABC News has made it a science.

But you can only fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. Them idiots you can fool all the time, they are a dime a dozen, but you cannot fool me, none of the time.

You may as well call ABC News “Cartoon World”. Here is the wily fox is standing behind a tree with a club in his hand, waiting for the innocent chicken to walk by. (In Cartoon World, it is sooo obvious). But when the fox is Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos and the innocent chicken is Barack Obama, Cartoon World turns into a Soap Opera, “As the World Turns” on its ear, brought to you by ABC News.

POST NOTE:

There has always been political “mouthpieces” that speaks for the kings and lords, explaining why there is divine rule in the land. They create philosophies of state and government and religion. But a funny thing happened in the revolution in medieval times. When the peasants chopped off the king’s head, there went the heads of his philosophers also.

 

HAT TIP to Will Bunch from Eddie Griffin

Four Thousand Funerals And A Wedding

*** This article was originally published back in September ***

It’s old news now that the Bush family is in the midst of planning a wedding. I don’t suffer the details so I couldn’t say much about which twin is getting married nor do I want to spend the minimal energy to try and find out. If such detail is important it is very easy to find. I don’t know who the lucky guy is. But I can tell you he is neck deep in conservative politics and is prime Republican Party material. There is talk about a white house wedding in the rose garden with white lace. I can imagine the guest list would read like a who’s who in US and world politics first, who’s who in the Republican Party second, who’s who in entertainment a close third, and pulling up the rear would be family and friends. I’m pretty sure my invitation will be lost in the mail. Who wants to be bothered with all that secret service security and all that intrusive background checks anyway?

But it occurred to me that while the Bush’s have their celebration of the legal union of a man and a woman there are thirty seven hundred sixty families across America that have planned or are in the midst of planning the funerals to celebrate a loved one lost in this war of American led aggression in Iraq. And by the time the wedding day actually takes place at least another two hundred or so service men and women would have paid the ultimate price. Let’s just round the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle to about four thousand by the time the wedding is done.

Why do we keep sending non-Bush family men and women to be killed in the war on terror? Because the sacrifice of the men and women who have already died would be meaningless if we didn’t throw a few more lives after them. And let’s not forget a few more hundreds of billions of dollars to boot. We have to sacrifice more because the sacrifice of the ones already sacrificed isn’t enough. We have to win. Otherwise we look like wimps to the rest of the world and we will continue to embolden an enemy that has already been emboldened by confounding an invading superpower for five years come March in what looks like a stalemate of military tactics. America has to fight our enemies there so we don’t have to fight them here may sound like a responsible plan. But for how long will this plan take? How many lives will this plan cost? How much of the national treasure must we continue to spend? Providing every American with adequate healthcare was assumed to be way too expensive an undertaking to even try. But a never ending war on its way to a cool trillion dollars is fiscal responsibility.

So by the time the Bush family makes its tough decision over whether to use the Waterford or the Wedgwood crystal, four thousand families would have made the choice between the marble or the granite headstones for their family member. The Bush’s aren’t going to lose a daughter. They will gain a son in law. Mr. Bush is more than happy to leave the privilege of losing a loved one in the war on terror for the rest of America.

According to his just released book Dead Certain, Mr. Bush confesses that he spends a lot of time crying. He’s shed more tears as president than anyone would give him credit for. If Mr. Bush sheds a single tear over what happens to people it would be a surprise to me. People have died because of his actions and his lack of action. To compound the misery of the war in Iraq there is the war effort in Afghanistan that has been woefully mismanaged. On top of all this add the government’s lack of a response to Katrina. Two years later people are still living in trailers if they were lucky enough to get one at all. The only major business in gulf coast Mississippi that is thriving is the casino. Those people in southern Mississippi need some kind of hope to get out of their predicament. They will pull their faith in a slot machine because they can’t depend on their government.

I hope Mr. Bush can shed a tear or two for all the people who continue to suffer with any kind of medical coverage. Someone had the nerve to say that everyone in America gets medical coverage whether they can pay for it or not. But the truth is that people are only guaranteed to get only emergency treatment, the most expensive form of medical care available. For many people, the emergency treatment comes too late to make a significant difference in their life. It is a classic example of a stitch in time saves nine. Only this time it’s more like preventive medicine, over time, saves lives. But who cares? Mr. Bush may care enough to say that he cries at night or whenever, but he doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. In fact, Mr. Bush is actively working to prevent the expansion of the number of children who would qualify for medical coverage under a federal program. In the president’s eyes, right next to all those crocodile tears, it would encourage too many people not to pay the full cost of insurance and would undercut the insurance industry’s profits.

Of course Mr. Bush sheds a lot of tears as the president. Sometimes I want to cry too just from looking at him. But it takes a lot more than just a claim of tears to make up for his sorry performance. Just ask some of the families that have lost a loved one or suffered a loss because of his incompetence or lack of compassion or concern for profits. So whatever tears may fall at the wedding for Mr. Bush’s daughter, I hope people remember all the tears that have fallen in well over four thousand funerals across America.

Assimilation Can Be A Wonderful Thing

Assimilation into a society can be a wonderful thing. Being able to be who you are in appearance and thought, and to be respected as an equal by the greater social community, is a heavenly concept. When people who are visibly different from the dominant majority of members of the community and are truly free to make the choice to keep their ethnic cultures, appearance, traditions, heritage, and spiritual beliefs and are truly welcomed and embraced, then assimilation that respects who we are individually and permits us to remain true to ourselves is a very wonderful thing.

But American racial assimilation does not follow the idea that the ethnicity of the black culture needs to be respected. Assimilation in America is far from being a wonderful thing. Racial assimilation here requires the black minority to leave his or her ethnicity behind as they modify themselves to become what the dominant culture feels is an acceptable black racial identity.

Black people who are strong in their black affiliation are regularly minimized and ridiculed by elements of the dominant community as ineffective leaders while black people who promote principles of cultural assimilation or racially generic identities that minimize black affiliation are marketed as people who have the courage to be independent thinkers. The implication is that black people who think about black issues are run of the mill and nothing to be proud of while black people who can put their blackness behind them are something new, different, and should be an inspiration to other black people.

White people who have embraced their white identity are rarely condemned by the dominant community even when they promote blatant hatred and/or violence. A former secretary of education promotes ideas of aborting all black babies if you want to reduce crime. This man with pretty blatant racial insensitivities can reach the upper echelons of government and suggest ideas of black genocide. How many black people promote the same idea but with white babies and have achieved such a career? Bureau of Justice Statistics prove that white people commit far more crime than black people and therefore it would be far more effective to abort all white babies. The idea of aborting white people is so abhorrent it cannot even be mentioned but the idea of aborting black babies can be hypothesized without fear of retribution.

A white district attorney can go on public record promising black children that he will destroy their lives unless they submit to dominant culture authority and quit making trouble for white children regardless of the fact that white children may have initiated the trouble by hanging racially provocative nooses from trees. A white woman can make it public that she doesn’t want black people buying her clothing. A white television pundit encourages white people to have babies in order to protect the white privilege. A white man tells his son to dump his black girlfriend if he wants to stay in the family business and the dominant community protects his right to be racist behind closed doors while he promotes segregationist behavior that extends far beyond their closed doors and private conversations. A white comedian can get on stage and let loose with one of the most intense displays of racial hatred and animosity and his friends come to his side saying he was only having a bad day.

Imagine how long a black district attorney would stay in his job if he went on stage before an audience of white children and promised that he would make their lives disappear. Imagine the response if a black television pundit told black people to have babies so that they could impact white privilege. Imagine if a black man with a television show was recorded telling his son that if he wanted to stay in the family he had to dump his white girlfriend using colorful racial epithets for white people in the process.

In order for black people to be welcomed to the dominant culture fold, they must promote the concepts that prevent black people from being able to embrace their black identity. Black people who promote the idea that black people are solely responsible for the plight of the black community are given credence by the dominant community which is overwhelmingly white. The dominant majority has a near endless supply of black surrogates ready to espouse a philosophy that encourages the obliteration of black community consciousness and/or identity. A black person who encourages other black people to detach themselves from their blackness cannot honestly say that they are concerned about the welfare of the black community.

It has been suggested that the key to the success in the black community is to conform to the expectations that the dominant community has for the black community. Black people need to become what the dominant community expects of people in the black community. Black people need to adapt to the parameters that the dominant community says defines what is acceptable for black people’s appearance and behavior. And all too often, black people who have adapted these parameters and have embraced them as gospel are quick to judge other black people who choose an identity that may push or even exceed the established boundaries.

Women who don’t take the steps to straighten their hair or who make the choice to wear clothing or accessories that suggest a connection to their African heritage and men who choose to wear their hair long and/or locked are not professional enough in many working environments. Before these people can even demonstrate their qualifications, experience, and/or education they are dismissed as unacceptable. And yet, the workplace would be one that touts an environment that welcomes cultural diversity. However, the welcome is only for those cultural conformist that stand ready to meet the standards set forth for black people by the dominant group. This is the type of assimilation that doesn’t welcome diversity but cultural abandonment.

Assimilation that requires conformation to the expectations of the dominant culture is not respectful of true cultural diversity. Those who dare not conform are frowned upon and ridiculed. Black people who embrace black culture are not generally welcomed in the typical corporate American environment. This is the type of assimilation that black people should learn to detest at each and every opportunity. The black community doesn’t need black people telling us on a regular basis that we have to submit to the establishment’s rules for what is acceptable black appearance and acceptable black behavior. Black people should already have their identity.

For those black people that wish to conform to the dominant community, it goes without saying that that is your prerogative. But it should be the prerogative for other black people to make the choose to define themselves for who they are without having to match the expectations of the establishment. When black people who define themselves are welcomed in the dominant community without having to pretend to be something else, then we have a meeting of cultures that everyone can appreciate and tolerate. This type of assimilation is truly a wonderful thing.